Keyshawn Johnson arrested for suspicion of domestic battery on ex-girlfriend

LOS ANGELES — Keyshawn Johnson, former USC and NFL player, was arrested early Monday at his home in the Los Angeles-area community of Calabasas on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic battery after reports of an incident involving his ex-girlfriend.

Johnson, 40, was taken into custody shortly before 1 a.m. PDT when Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies responded to a possible spousal assault call.

Deputies “determined that the resident and his ex-girlfriend were involved in a domestic dispute,” sheriff’s officials said in a statement.

Johnson, an ESPN analyst, was released at 9:15 a.m. in lieu of $20,000, sheriff’s officials said.

Johnson first made his name as a USC standout receiver before playing in the NFL for the New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dallas Cowboys and Carolina Panthers. Since retiring, he has worked as a TV football analyst and appeared on “Dancing With the Stars.”

Notes

• Josh Freeman signed with the New York Giants to be a backup quarterback to Eli Manning.

Freeman was released by Tampa Bay early last season and spent the rest of 2013 with Minnesota. His one start for the Vikings was in a 23-7 loss to the Giants in which he struggled, going 20 of 53 for 190 yards with an interception.

Tampa Bay cut Freeman in a messy split last year.

• Denver quarterback Peyton Manning said he didn’t break any of the NFL’s offseason rules when he recently met with Alabama head coach Nick Saban.

The issue with a possible violation of the collective-bargaining agreement arose because Denver’s offensive coordinator, Adam Gase, was also in Tuscaloosa to meet with Crimson Tide coaches. NFL rules prohibit players and coaches from conducting football-related business before the official start of the offseason program. For the Broncos, that date was today.

“Yeah, that didn’t happen. We know what the rules were. Like I said, I was there on an independent project, and Adam was as well,” Manning said.

The New York Jets coach is still plenty confident in his team, and he let them know that Monday when his players gathered at the team’s facility in Florham Park, N.J., for their first set of voluntary workouts.

“I talked to our team about how I feel, about what our fans expect,” Ryan said of his opening message. “To me, it’s time to deliver. We need to deliver.

“I’m not going to get into the specifics about what we’re delivering, but I know what our fans expect, and they’re going to get everything we have.”

• The Cincinnati Bengals have exercised a 2015 contract option for receiver A.J. Green, letting them turn their focus to an extension for quarterback Andy Dalton.

• Indianapolis general manager Ryan Grigson was unusually busy on the opening day of offseason workouts. He put center Phil Costa on the reserved-retired list, signed veteran safety Colt Anderson and re-signed cornerback Josh Gordy, a restricted free agent.

• Rolando McClain is walking away from the NFL again, this time for good. On the day the linebacker was due to report to the Baltimore Ravens for the first day of the team’s offseason workout program, he sent a text to ESPN.com saying, “I gotta follow my heart. It ain’t football. If football made me complete I would play. But whenever I think of it my heart pulls me away from whatever reason. … This means I’m done.”

• Ndamukong Suh will be a no-show at the Detroit Lions’ voluntary minicamp this week, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press. Suh will attend the team’s voluntary workouts in May and mandatory minicamp next month, the person said.